World AM News Briefs For Tuesday, 3 October 2017

Good Morning Australia!! - 59 people dead in Las Vegas as America deals with its latest massacre - The suspected gunman was, on the surface, a comfortably retired accountant - But his family history has a highly unusual chapter that cannot be ignored - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

America is once again wringing its hands and wondering how so many have been killed in yet another mass shooting.  A gunman with fully automatic weapons fired out two 32nd storey windows of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, down at 22,000 fans attending a country music festival featuring Jason Aldean, Jake Owen, and other big names, killing at least 59 people and wounding more than 500.  Concertgoers had been rolling video as the gunman emptied clip after clip - their reactions went from confusion to terror as they realized that the rapid-repeating pops they heard weren't fireworks. 


They ducked and tried to hide behind fences and garbage cans because few knew the gunman's exact location.  And finally they ran, carrying as many wounded as they could to hospitals that were quickly overwhelmed.

The gunman is identified as 64-year old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada.  He shot himself to death as police closed in on him.


Investigators recovered more than ten guns from the hotel suite, more from his home in an upper-middle class retirement community in Mesquite, and even more from a second house he owned in another retirement community in Reno, Nevada, the state's second city of gambling.  Paddock was a retired accountant who apparently had money for all of this, but police determined that he had recently dropped tens of thousands of dollars in casinos.  Investigators are also going through his medical history and any internet activity, although at first it appeared as though he had no social network profiles, no religious motivation, no political affiliation.  In fact, Paddock appears to be closer to the old school of American mass murderers:  Cops say he was quiet and "kept to himself".

Paddock's brother near Orlando, Florida expressed shock that the gunman could have carried out the worst mass shooting in recent US history*.  "There is no reason we can imagine why Stephen would do something like this," said 55-year old Eric Paddock, who has already been interviewed by the FBI.  "All we can do is send our condolences to the people who died.  Just no reason, no warning."  Eric acknowledged that he knew Stephen had a few handguns - which is not uncommon in crazy ol' America - and was a sportsman who had recently purchased fishing licenses in Alaska.  He knew Stephen was a high stakes gambler, but knew of no major debts, mental illness, or substance abuse problems.

(*most US media outlets are not comparing modern shootings to the mass murders and genocides with much higher body counts carried against North American indigenous groups)

There is one strange footnote in the Paddock family history:  Stephen's father was "Patrick" Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, a career bank robber who spent eight years on the FBI's most-wanted list in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Agents warned the elder Paddock was a "psychopath" with "suicidal tendencies".  It's not clear what, if any, relationship the father had with the son.  But Eric Paddock said, "I was born on the run."

The other loose end is the woman reported to be Paddock's girlfriend, 62-year old Marilou Danley.  She is out of the country, but reportedly worked as a high-limit hostess at The Atlantis casino in Las Vegas.  Authorities at first called her a person of interest, but have since spoken with her via telephone and do not believe she had any involvement in the massacre.  And an anonymous associate of Ms. Danley denied she was involved with Paddock:  "She had nothing to do with this psycho,” the man told the Reno Gazette-Journal, "The poor lady, she is in the Philippines visiting family."